Perhaps the most contested patch of earth in the world, Jerusalem’s Old City experiences consistent violent unrest between Israeli and Palestinian residents, with seemingly no end in sight. Today, Jerusalem’s endless cycle of riots and arrests appears intractable—even unavoidable—and it looks unlikely that harmony will ever be achieved in the city. But with Jerusalem 1900, historian Vincent Lemire shows us that it wasn’t always that way, undoing the familiar notion of Jerusalem as a lost cause and revealing a unique moment in history when a more peaceful future seemed possible.

In this masterly history, Lemire uses newly opened archives to explore how Jerusalem’s elite residents of differing faiths cooperated through an intercommunity municipal council they created in the mid-1860s to administer the affairs of all inhabitants and improve their shared city. These residents embraced a spirit of modern urbanism and cultivated a civic identity that transcended religion and reflected the relatively secular and cosmopolitan way of life of Jerusalem at the time. These few years would turn out to be a tipping point in the city’s history—a pivotal moment when the horizon of possibility was still open, before the council broke up in 1934, under British rule, into separate Jewish and Arab factions. Uncovering this often overlooked diplomatic period, Lemire reveals that the struggle over Jerusalem was not historically inevitable—and therefore is not necessarily intractable. Jerusalem 1900 sheds light on how the Holy City once functioned peacefully and illustrates how it might one day do so again.

Forgotten History A Moment to Delineate, a Period to Define The Causes of Failure The Causes of Forgetting Why Remember? An Itinerary

1. The Underside of Maps: One City or Four Quarters?

A Rough-cut Cartography External Boundaries, Internal Fractures Language, Citizenship, Property: Some Useful Concepts Inside and Outside City Walls The Four Quarters: A Late and Exogenous Topography The New City: Mixed Neighborhoods and Jewish Neighborhoods Summary: Of People and Places

2. Origins of the City as Museum

Turning One’s Back on the Modern City Lament over the Tomb-City A City Becoming Unreadable From Scholarship to Archaeology Reconstructing Christ’s Jerusalem Toward an Intimate History of Archaeology and Pilgrimage Biblical Archaeology: “No Return” Inventions

3. Still-Undetermined Holy Sites

Maurice Halbwachs as Advance Scout Localization and Designation How to Construct a Holy Site: The Example of the Garden Tomb Global and Structural Uncertainty Original Hybridity

4. The Scale of the Empire

Ottomanism: A Defense against Fracturing Identities? The Seraglio People: Imperial Administration in Jerusalem Countering the Image of the “Turk’s Head”: A Gallery of Portraits September 1, 1900: Imperial Jubilee in Jerusalem The Road Network: A City Opened Up, a Region Ottomanized The Railway: A Jewish Contractor, French Capital, and Muslim Inauguration Ottomanism and Shared Urbanness: Drinking Water for All

5. The Municipal Revolution

Origin of the Municipality: An Urban Community? Garbage Collection and the Municipalization of Urban Powers Elected Council Members: Citizens, City Dwellers, and Property Owners Yussuf Ziya al-Khalidi, the Founding Mayor At the Heart of Municipal Action: The Defense of Public Space Urbanites All? Public Health, Leisure, and Municipal Finances

6. The Wild Revolutionary Days of 1908

What Time Was It in Jerusalem? The Wild Days of August 1908: Jerusalem’s Forgotten Revolution Unexpected Fracture Lines New Vectors of Lively Public Opinion Underneath Communities, Classes?

7. Intersecting Identities

Albert Antébi, Levantine Urbanite An “Arab Awakening” in the Chaos of Battle Jerusalem and the Parochialism of the “People of the Holy Land” Jerusalem, the Thrice-Holy City, and the Municipium

Conclusion: The Bifurcation of Time

The Bird People Ben-Yehuda, the Outsider Toward a Shared History Notes Bibliography Index

Review Quotes

Choice

"An important book for its theoretical and corrective analysis of the vicissitudes of Jerusalem’s ongoing realities, and a contribution to archaeology and modernization in general. Highly recommended."

Le Monde

“Jerusalem, undoubtedly the most sensitive spiritual and geopolitical hotspot on the planet, counts Lemire among its most original historians. He brings the city to life at a time when ethnic and religious divisions were less entrenched and clear-cut than today.”

Libération

“This book should be placed in the hands of anyone who is interested in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict—not because Lemire places a spotlight on the news but rather because he provides new historic clarity on the beating heart of the conflict: Jerusalem.”

For more information, or to order this book, please visit http://www.press.uchicago.edu